Celebrating my mom's 86th birthday in a big, fun way

My mom turned 86 on November 4.

She is still doing well both physically and mentally.

I am thankful to have her.  I know we are blessed.

She lives with us in the house that I grew up in and I am so thankful for that, too.

She folds my laundry (she is the best folder ever), irons our clothes, and I have yet to scrub a floor in this house in the fourteen years we have lived here.

She also cooks when I ask her to make things for us.

She fills the bird feeders, pulls weeds out of the gardens, and sweeps the driveway on a daily basis.

To be honest, there are times that she drives me crazy with her constant chatte while I am on the laptop and the TV is on full volume.  (She doesn't hear as well as she used to) but as my college roommate, who lost her mom a few months ago, said to me, "You will miss that chatter when she is gone."

I try to embrace it and most of the time, I am successful at it.

I do know I will miss it when that day comes.

We have celebrated my mom's birthday in many different ways over the years.

Recently we have spent the weekend up in Oshkosh, but this year we headed down to The Hunter House in Bloomington.  Now that Alissa and Nathan have a house, we can celebrate with them.

Kev, Vikki, Mallory, and Nic joined us, too.

Alissa planned a perfect celebration.

She baked a cake with homemade frosting which she felt had been a Pinterest fail, but it tasted so good even if she hadn't quite nailed the presentation.

We all had dinner at one of their favorite restaurants, Destihl brew house.  What a great choice.  We all enjoyed our food and they brought a birthday dessert of some mores.  There was enough melted chocolate, graham cookie things, melted marshmellows, and cinnamon cream for all of us to enjoy our own some more.

(I know I am not spelling that correctly, but I know you know what I mean)

Here are some photos of the great celebration.

 My mom and her three granddaughters.

 My brother Kevin and my SIL Nathan looking over the golf course which is in their backyard.

 Alissa and Nathan just got new furniture and we all loved it so much.

 Gigi opening her gifts from the girls.

 Deep discussion going on here.

 Opening the goody box.

 Lissa and Nathan got some awesome housewarming gifts, too.

 Here is the birthday cake

 All the guests except me and John.

 Helping Gigi blow out the candles.

 Tizita is trying very hard to get Gigi to talk while eating her cake.

We have a tradition that if you talk during the eating of your cake, you have to sit under the table. 

Many of us have been under the table many times. but Gigi made it without going under this time.

 Soliana entertained us with some guitar playing and singing.

 Tizita entertained us with some gymnastics.

 Enjoying our meal at Destihl.

 The yummy dessert.

The some more dessert.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate a wonderful lady.

I hope we will be able to celebrate many, many more birthdays with her.

Door County, Always fun, always beautiful

Door County is one of those places that is always beautiful, always an adventure, always new things to explore and discover.

Since I had Friday off, I decided that John and I should head up to Door County.  Courtney, Paul, and the girls would meet us on Saturday and spend the night with us.

I rented a condo at the Landmark through VRBO.

We stayed there last New Year's Eve and really liked it, so we decided to go that route again.

We left on Friday morning in the middle of our first snow storm.

It was blustery and cold, but we figured it would be okay, after all, it is Door County.

We heard a radio report about power outages in Door County, great,

We went up via Manitowoc and we could not believe the size of the waves on Lake Michigan along the bike path on Highway 42.  They were huge!

We got up there about noon and had lunch at Bistro 42 which is part of the Door Peninsula Winery.

After a lunch of some okay, but rather fancy (shi shi la la) food as refer to it, we proceeded to taste and buy some wines.

Then we tasted and bought some whiskey and cherry vodka from the distillery.

It warmed us up on the very cold, windy day.

We drove up to the tip and visited Ellison Bay and Headbluffs County parks.  We were not able to spend very much time out of the car though because of the cold and wind.

We were happy to check into the Landmark and enjoyed a dinner at the restaurant there.

Spent the rest of the night holed up in our condo watching TV.

We woke up on Saturday to sun and much nicer temps with no wind at all.

John and I walked into Egg Harbor from the Landmark and discovered a few new areas.

By the time we got back to the Landmark, Courtney and family were there so we headed over to P C Junction for lunch.  What a fun place.

A train brings your drinks and food out to you. 

There were also so many fun things to do at P C Junction and none of it cost a dime.

We all loved driving the little cars and the pick up truck slide was very unique.

After our fun lunch, we headed over to Whitefish Dunes State Park with the goal of reaching old Baldy.

We did it, even little Soli was able to do the three mile hike there and back.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we had a great time together.

After a successful hike, we went to another favorite spot, Cavepoint County Park.

The girls had lots of fun climbing around on the rocks.

We had all worked up quite an appetite, so we had a few margaritas and some great mexican food at JJ's in Jacksonport.

Courtney and Paul went over to kareoke at the Carington Pub and Grill at the Landmark.

The girls, John, and I were very tired and called it an early night.

We were up bright and early on Sunday due to setting the clocks back so we had lots of time to swim in the pool before checking out.

We did some more hiking around Egg Harbor and then all had a late lunch at Titletown in Green Bay before heading home.

What a fun, memorable weekend.

Bugline-Last Bike Ride of the Season

Today was a beautiful fall day and according to the weatherman, the last nice weekend before the dreaded cold and snow set in.  Ugh!

I wish we could have two more months of this crisp fall weather.

Today John and I took, what will more than likely be, our last bike ride of the season.

Our bikes will hang on their hooks in the garage until Memorial Day when we will ride the trail at Point Beach State Park just like we do every Memorial Day.

We chose the Bugline since we had not ridden it at all this season yet and we heard it was now paved.

We hopped on in Merton and rode the 12 miles to Menomonee Falls and back to Merton.

The trail was full of other cyclists as well as joggers, walkers, and roller bladers.

Here are a few photos of the great ride.

 Bathroom stop

 Mile 12, the turn around point

 Our snack along the way!

What a wonderful way to spend this beautiful fall day!

Leaves, Leaves, Everywhere and A Silent Auction to Boot

We have planned Pumpkin patch trips with the girls two weekends in the past.  Both of those weekends were rainy, windy, and cool.

This weekend, the weather could not have been better for any outdoor activity, but it was not our weekend with the girls, so our big pumpkin patch trip to Waldvogel's will not happen this year.

We did get to visit that much smaller patch last weekend in between rain showers and it was very nice, but I still miss the "glitz" of the big commercial patch.

We started out our weekend on Friday  night with dinner and a few beers at Bismark's with  my mom, Kev, Vikki, and Mallory.

Always a fun to drink and chat with them.

On Saturday, John and I had to do the grocery shopping since we were not able to do it on our Friday night, which is our usual routine.

I do not do schedule changes very easily, but the Saturday shopping went fine and I survived.

On Saturday afternoon we tackled our leaf filled yard and by "we," I mean John.  I raked a bit, but I get bored and distracted easily.  I would much rather photograph the leaves than rake them.

 Our new patio is buried somewhere under a foot of leaves.

 And the raking is not done since the tree still has a few leaves left on it.

 Our garden is ready for next spring.  The only things left growing are my strong marigolds and some cosmos.

 Just told my kids the story of the burning bush, love having one in our backyard.

I also love how the blue sky looks against the leaves and branches.

Today, Sunday, we are planning on one last bike ride.

The weather looks to be perfect for it.